Quasar's First Day
by L1701E
Summary: One-Shot. After the events of "Quivering Quasars", we see Wendell "Quasar" Vaughn's first day as Project: Pegasus's Assistant Security Chief. Read and Review Please!


**Quasar's First Day**

 **Disclaimer: All characters belong to Marvel Comics. And here's a funny quote: "My name is Pleseance, and I am funky!"**

 **Author's Note: Hey there, folks! L1701E here! This story is set a few days after "Quivering Quasars". I got inspired to write this out of boredom, and because I thought it would be neat to see how Wendell Vaughn was dealing with his new job as Blue Shield's assistant at Project: Pegasus. Enjoy!**

 **Project: Pegasus**

Project: Pegasus. A special facility in Mount Athena, part of the Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York. **(1)** A subsidiary of the Department of Energy, and protected by SHIELD, it had a couple functions. The primary one was research of alternative energy resources, and it was also occasionally used to track and incarcerate superhuman criminals.

Recently, the facility got to meet the Misfits, and the encounter not only resulted in the thwarting of an attempt by AIM to steal a potential energy source, but witnessed the birth of a brand new superhero. **(1)** Said new hero was sitting on a bed in a room. The room itself was rather homely, looking more like the room of a supergeek: Movie posters on the walls, a bookshelf full of books, and an entertainment system.

A cloth in his hand, Wendell Vaughn, wearing a plain green short-sleeved jumpsuit, was polishing one of the bands around his wrists. He smiled in satisfaction when he observed the shine on the golden bands.

 _ **Quasar. Real Name: Wendell Elvis Vaughn. Birthplace: Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, USA. Physiology: Human (uses alien energy bands). Affiliation: SHIELD, Project: Pegasus (Assistant Security Chief). Powers: Quantum Bands permanently attached to wrists allow manipulation of electromagnetic spectrum, mainly in the form of energy constructs and forcefields.**_

"Alright, you guys are looking good." The young blond man smiled happily as he gazed at the bands. Wendell Vaughn was once a regular SHIELD agent, until the incident with the alien monster and AIM attacking Project: Pegasus. During that incident, Vaughn put on his energy bands, and used their power to create energy constructs to help the Misfits fight the monster and AIM. After the battle, Vaughn was given the codename "Quasar" by the Misfit known as Starway.

"Hey, Vaughn! You ready to go?" Wendell turned around and saw a Caucasian man standing at the doorway to his room, clad in a blue armored uniform with a chest insignia of a silver police badge-like shield with a blue multipointed star in it. His voice had a Bronx inflection.

 _ **Blue Shield. Real Name: Joseph Cartelli. Birthplace: The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. Physiology: Enhanced Human. Affiliation: Project: Pegasus (Security Chief). Powers: Superhuman strength, speed, durability, and stamina. Special belt generated powerful forcefield.**_

"Yeah, Shield. I'm ready." Wendell got up, revealing he was wearing a green short-sleeved jumpsuit. Blue Shield smiled.

"Great. The technos have made a little gift for you."

"I'm sure it'll be fun to see, Shield." Wendell chuckled.

"Call me Joe, Wendell." Blue Shield insisted. "Since we're working together, we might as well be on a first name basis." 

"Sure thing, Joe." Wendell nodded as the two walked down a hallway. "So, what did Dad and the other science guys whip up for me?"

"They told me not to say until we got to the lab. They wanted to surprise you." Blue Shield explained. "You nervous about this job?"

"Me?" Wendell shook his head. "Not really. It can't be much different than what I used to do here."

"Except now you help me make sure this place is safe." Blue Shield explained. "You're my backup, and if I'm not able to take charge of the situation, it falls to you, kid."

"Yeah, I know." Wendell nodded in understanding. "And here I was, thinking that the tests I've been having to endure lately would be my only worry."

"You know your dad is only doing them because he worries about you." Blue Shield explained. "He doesn't want those bands to mess you up in some way."

"Yeah, I know." Wendell nodded.

The two walked towards one of the many lab complexes in the facility. The two eyed a man, who resembled an older version of Wendell, with bespectacles and beard. The man was reading off a clipboard when he looked up.

"Ah, Wendell, my boy." Dr. Gilbert Vaughn smiled. Ever since the A.I.M.'s attack, the two Vaughns had done a lot of talking and patching things up.

"Hey, Dad."

"Must get awkward sometimes working with your dad." Blue Shield joked.

"Shaddap, Joe." Wendell grumbled. "What's up?"

"Just looking over some results of the tests we did yesterday." Dr. Vaughn explained. "Thanks to you, we managed to learn quite a bit about the bands."

"We also made something rather special for you, Wendell." A red-haired woman who appeared to be in her 50s walked up to the three men. Dr. Madeline Reznek waved. "Over here, young man." Wendell blinked in confusion.

"Okay..." He followed Dr. Reznek to what looked like a long white box mounted at an angle. "What is this?"

"A little gift." The redheaded doctor explained. She pressed a button, and the box opened with a hissing noise. Wendell's face showed surprise when the box's contents were revealed.

"Whoa..."

It was a costume. The costume was predominantly red, with short blue sleeves and leggings. It had blue on the chest and shoulders and an emblem of a chest of a golden four-pointed star with a ring around it, making the emblem look slightly like a crosshair. It also had a blue cape that went down to his waist. Wendell blinked as he examined the costume.

"You like it, son?" Gilbert smiled.

"It's...nice." Wendell took the costume and turned it over.

"We got the idea from the Misfits." Dr. Reznek explained. "They wore those lovely colorful costumes, so we thought it would be nice for you to have one."

"I'm not exactly a superhero, Doc." Wendell responded. "I'm just the Assistant Security Chief here."

"Just go with it, kiddo." Blue Shield advised with a chuckle. "That's what I'd do."

"Alright, then." Wendell smiled at the costume. "I just hope this thing is comfortable."

"There's a changing area right over there." Dr. Reznek pointed at a corner that had a curtain rigged in front of it for privacy. Wendell walked behind the curtain and changed into the costume, hanging his jumpsuit over the top of it. When he was finished, he walked out of it.

"You look like an actual superhero, kid." Blue Shield smiled.

"You look very nice in it." Dr. Reznek compliemented. "How does it feel?"

"Actually, quite comfortable." Wendell moved around a bit to loosen up. "It feels like I'm wearing nothing at all." Blue Shield rolled his eyes.

"And thank you for _that_ mental image..." He muttered. Wendell laughed, then brushed some of his hair out of his face.

"I know Dad, I have to get my hair cut..."

Dr. Vaughn took off his black tie. "Until you can, this will do." He tied it around his son's head. "There we go." Some time later, Wendell was standing in a large room that had no furnishings. Instead, the whole room was black except for yellow lines in a grid pattern. It also had a long window on one of the walls where he noticed his Dad, Dr. Reznek, and Blue Shield observing.

"So...what am I supposed to do here?" Wendell asked.

"We're going to test out your construct-making abilities, son." Dr. Vaughn explained. "This projector room will allow us to do so with the aid of advanced holography."

"Dad, just call it the Holodeck. That's what this is. We all know you're a big Trekkie."

"Well...yeah."

"My niece would love this room." Dr. Reznek chuckled. Dr. Vaughn rose an eyebrow.

"Niece?"

"Her name is Avril. Avril Kincaid." Dr. Reznek explained.

"Avril?"

"Avril is the French word for April." Dr. Reznek explained. "It's pronounced Av-REEL. Her mother is French, and she was born in April."

"That makes sense." Blue Shield nodded.

"Okay, bring on the targets." Wendell grinned eagerly. "What you got? Alien planet? Kaiju Attack? Space Invaders? Bring them on!"

"Alright, son..." Dr. Vaughn started typing on a keyboard. "Let's start you off with something simple." A pair of red circles appeared in the air. Wendell sighed.

"You're kidding, right Dad?"

"It's a test, not actual combat." Dr. Vaughn explained. "I want to see if you can create two constructs at once."

"I may have done that during A.I.M.'s attack on this place." Wendell remembered. "When I fought the creature."

"That was in the heat of battle." Dr. Vaughn explained. "I want to see if you can do it under calmer conditions."

"Alright..." Wendell pointed his fists at the two targets. _Relax..._ He reminded himself as the gems on the Quantum Bands started to glow. _Just go with the flow..._ Golden energy flowed from the bands, and formed into a pair of drills. The drills smacked into the red targets.

"Good!" Dr. Vaughn nodded in approval. "Let's try three." The testing continued for another hour. Different numbers of targets, in different positions, stationary and moving.

"Hmmm..." Dr. Reznek looked over the results of the testing on a clipboard as Wendell walked into the control chamber, a towel over his shoulders. "Looks like you're only really limited by your imagination when it comes to hitting multiple targets."

"It gets harder to concentrate when the number increases and they start moving, though." Wendell added, taking off his improvised headband and wiping some sweat off his forehead. "Sorry about your tie, Dad."

"Don't worry about it. It does make sense. You have to multitask. It gets harder for your brain to keep it all straight the more you had to concentrate on."

"Yeah." Wendell nodded. "I'm going to take a break, Dad."

"Sure, get some rest." Dr. Vaughn agreed. "I'm going to prepare the heat laser for the next test."

"Okay." Wendell left the room, Blue Shield right behind him.

"After you rest up, I'll need you to help me look over the security system of this place." Blue Shield reminded.

"I know. Can't do it on an empty stomach." The two walked towards the cafeteria, where they got some lunch. Blue Shield picked out some steak with mashed potatoes and corn. Wendell chose a burger with bacon. The two of them chowed down, making some small talk, until Wendell got it back on track. "So, what does looking over the security system entail?"

"It's simpler than you think. It's just basically looking over guard positions and making sure all the electronic systems are working, basically." Blue Shield answered with a shrug. "It's something that I try to do every couple hours." Wendell sputtered in shock.

"Couple _hours?!_ "

"It's the recommended thing." Blue Shield shrugged. "It's an important task, Wendell. We do a lot of sensitive research here and we also help occasionally detain a supervillain or two." He blinked and put his hand to his helmet. "Well, well, well."

"What?" Quasar blinked.

"Remember when I said we occasionally help detain supervillains?" Blue Shield smirked. "We got one. Follow me."

"Yeah, okay." Wendell and Blue Shield left the cafeteria. The two costumed guardsmen ran down a hall and towards an elevator. The elevator went upwards, taking them to the hangar of Project: Pegasus. When they arrived in the spacious hangar, they found that a helicopter had arrived, and with them were a group of men in green armor similar to Iron Man's. They were Guardsmen, security men using special Stark-created armor to help work security in various prisons designed to handle supervillains. They had surrounded a man dressed in a gaudy red-and-yellow costume with a chest emblem of a blazing sun. His shoulder-length reddish-brown hair fell out of his shoulder, kept out of his face by a red headband with a glowing jewel over his forehead. His arms and legs were in futuristic-looking shackles. Around his neck was a depowering collar.

"New guy?" Blue Shield asked one of the Guardsmen.

"Yup. Perfect for this place." The Guardsman answered, handing Blue Shield an iPad-like tablet. Blue Shield looked at it.

"Must be a rather new villain." Wendell remarked.

"Naw, he's actually been active a while, just not very well-known. Fought Iron Man and Captain America a couple times." Blue Shield explained. He smiled at the man. "Silas King, aka Solarr. Ability to absorb sunlight and heat, and then use it for various effects, Latent mutant whose powers activated when you got lost in the desert. Turns out they saved your life. And you became a criminal with your gift."

"What else, become a superhero?" Solarr smirked. "Yeah, right. No money in that. And superheroes are overrated."

"And it's because of one of those 'overrated heroes' that you're here." Blue Shield remarked, looking at the tablet. "According to this, you tussled with Captain America, and he handed you your butt." Solarr growled in frustration.

"That star-spangled jackoff ain't so tough without that fancy shield of his!"

"Take him to his new cell." Blue Shield ordered the Guardsmen. They scooted him forward and took him to an elevator. "Okay, Quasar. What should we do next here?"

"...maybe we should be going with them. Make sure that Solarr gets to his cell."

Blue Shield nodded at Wendell's answer. "Thinking like a security chief already. Let's go." The two costumed heroes went down to an area at the very bottom of the facility. Basically, it could be described as a jail area. The Guardsmen ushered Solarr into one of the cells. The cell itself was a rather spacious one, complete with a toilet, sink, and a bunk. A Guardsman checked a display on a control panel next to a cell.

"Power-nullifying circuitry is active." Upon hearing that, the Guardsmen unshackled the villain and put him on the bunk. They backed away so they could make sure he didn't move. When they were out of the cell, the bars came down. A blue tint also appeared over the front of the cell.

"You Guardsmen think you're so badass, huh?" Solarr taunted. "I'll get out of here one day, and when I do, you'll get yours!"

"I suggest you just enjoy your stay, Mr. King." Blue Shield told the villain. "You're spending your sentence here. If you're good, we'll let you have a book." Solarr crossed his arms.

"I want something by Dean Koontz."

Blue Shield snickered at the retort. "We'll see. Oh, and I hope you're hungry, Mr. King. Dinnertime is at 7."

"I want mashed potatoes!" Solarr demanded. "And it's Solarr!"

"Yeah, sure." Blue Shield answered non-chalantly as he and Wendell left.

"I have a question, Joe." Wendell asked Blue Shield. "Why is Solarr being brought here?"

"This facility is for the study of energy." Blue Shield explained. "As such, we can be specially equipped for holding supervillains with energy-based powers, like Mr. King." The two walked away. "The bars help make it harder to escape. The cells have circuitry that can be used to nullify powers." The two went into the elevator and it went upwards. "So, enjoying your first day as my assistant so far?"

"Eh, not as eventful as I thought, I'd like to admit." Wendell smiled.

"It usually is like this here." Blue Shield shrugged. "Considering the craziness other superheroes constantly get involved in, you'll grow to appreciate working here."

 **A jail, location unknown**

A stunning black-haired bespectacled woman walked to one of the visiting areas. She was dressed in a black stylish business suit with a purple blouse. The woman sat down in one of the booths and picked up the phone, smiling at the man on the other side of the glass partition.

"Hello, big brother." The woman smiled.

"It's good to see you, sis." Stanley Zane smiled back. "How're things at home?"

"Doing fine, thank you." Dr. Sybil Zane answered. "Heard you were going to be in here a while."

"Probably the rest of my life." Stanley answered with a sigh. "Didn't help that William Wesley died during that whole mess. Wasn't supposed to happen, though."

"I heard that GI Joe knows you're here." Sybil remembered.

"Yeah, they know. They bring that crazy Australian kid with them to visit me. They act like we're friends." Stanley shuddered. "That kid is crazy. I ended up playing tea party with him and these plastic ponies that he has!"

"You poor thing."

"Yeah. Not much I can do about it, though. Just endure it." Stanley sighed. "I just wanted some extra cash in my pocket, and a couple weeks under the Hawaiian sun. And it all goes to hell."

"Don't you worry, brother of mine." Sybil smiled in assurance. "The Joes and their pet freaks will get what's coming to them, and you'll get your Hawaiian vacation one day."

"Somehow, I doubt I'll ever get to even look in Hawaii's direction ever again." Stanley sighed. "I was just supposed to get those damned bands and get out. But then it all went to hell, and that guy got fried to ash, and..." He brushed some of his hair out of his face. "Yeah."

"I know." Sybil nodded. "But don't worry about it. Just try and stay alive in here."

"I'll do my best." Stan smiled.

"Don't you worry, brother." Sybil smiled. "What goes around, comes around."

"Be careful, sis." Stanley warned. "Those kids may be crazy, but they're tough as nails."

"I'll keep that in mind. Love you, big brother."

"Love you too, sis."

 _ **Thanks for reading!**_

 **(1) – In "Quivering Quasars!"**


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